| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Essays of Francis Bacon by Francis Bacon: noise, are things of great beauty and pleasure; for
they feed and relieve the eye, before it be full of
the same object. Let the scenes abound with light,
specially colored and varied; and let the masquers,
or any other, that are to come down from the
scene, have some motions upon the scene itself,
before their coming down; for it draws the eye
strangely, and makes it, with great pleasure, to
desire to see, that it cannot perfectly discern. Let
the songs be loud and cheerful, and not chirpings
or pulings. Let the music likewise be sharp and
Essays of Francis Bacon |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Rezanov by Gertrude Atherton: XXV
The white rain clouds, rolling as ever like a nervous
intruder over the great snow peaks behind the steep
hills black with forest that rose like a wall back of
the little settlement of Sitka, parted for a moment,
and the sun, a coy disdainful guest, flung a glitter-
ing mist over what Nature had intended to be one
of the most enchanting spots on earth, until, in a
fit of ill-temper--with one of the gods, no doubt--
she gave it to Niobe as a permanent outlet for her
discontent. When it does not rain at Sitka it pours,
Rezanov |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Danny's Own Story by Don Marquis: a lot of niggers his nigger blood would get the best
of him, and what he preached wasn't white su-
premacy at all, but hopefulness of being equal.
So the whites had fell away from him, and then
his graft was gone, and then his brains turned sour
in his head and got to working and fermenting in it
like cider getting hard, and he made a few bad
breaks by not being careful what he said before
white people. But the niggers liked him all the
better fur that.
They always had been more or less hell in the
|
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Miracle Mongers and Their Methods by Harry Houdini: You are always to remember, that in the
interim, he will commonly drink up four
or five glasses of the luke-warm water,
the better to provoke his stomach to a
disgorgement, if the first rouse will not
serve turn. He will now (for on every
disgorge he will bring you forth a new
colour), he will now present you with white
wine. Here also he will not wash his
glass, which (according to the vinegar in
which it was washed) will give it a colour
Miracle Mongers and Their Methods |
